Former NFL punter Scott Player returns to home town, enters business world

As long as it took Scott Player to reach the NFL, it’s understandable that he tried as hard as he could to fight off retirement.

But the 42-year-old St. Augustine native has finally settled into the life of a regular working guy. Yeah, just a regular guy who’s been to the Pro Bowl.

“It’s been a little bit of an adjustment,” Player said. “The hardest part is being inside all day.”

After a decade in the NFL, Player is back home in St. Johns County, working as a salesman for Steve Chapman’s All American Air Conditioning and Heating.

Player worked for seven years to make it as an NFL punter and stuck around 10 seasons — nine of which were with the Arizona Cardinals.

His last punt in the NFL was in 2007 with the Cleveland Browns, but he was in training camp with the New England Patriots in 2008 and played for the New York Sentinels of the United Football League in 2009.

A hamstring injury in 2007 is what really ended his time in the NFL. He said it just never completely healed, and he wasn’t able to kick at full speed any more.

That left Player as a young man looking to figure out what to do with the rest of his working life.

So he and his wife and two daughters decided to move back to the county in June. Player took a long-standing job offer from Chapman, and now he’s doing his best to learn the business world.

It’s not as exciting as playing football in front of 70,000 fans, but nobody gets to do that forever.

“I know the owner (Chapman) and he always told me if I moved back he had position for me,” Player said.

Player is a guy who showed an amazing drive just to make it in football, and he doesn’t care to sit around too long.

“You run out of things to do at home,” Player said. “It’s nice to have a place to go, things to do, to have a purpose.”

Player could have been in the regular workforce a lot sooner if not for some serious determination.

After playing baseball and football at St. Augustine High School, Player went to junior college — and later Flagler College — to pursue a baseball career. When a rotator cuff injury derailed that dream, he started working on punting again, more of a way to burn off energy than anything else.

But he got really good at it. In fact, he was good enough to walk on at Florida State for the 1991 season.

Getting to that point was an accomplishment in itself, but Player believed he could do more. The tough part was getting anyone else to believe it.

“Nobody knew who I was professionally,” he said.

Player called teams constantly and went to any tryout he could find. Year after year, he failed to land a roster spot, but he never doubted his ability.

“It’s a simple matter of if you can kick it a certain distance and a certain time in the air …” Player said. “I knew what I could do was the equivalent of what guys could do on Sunday.”

All that self confidence paid off when Player got a job with the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League in 1995.

He credits special teams coach Al Everest with helping his career there.

They hooked again after Everest took over as special teams coach with the Cardinals, the team that finally made Player an NFL punter in 1998.

It turned out to be a great fit for both parties.

Player was a quality performer in Arizona until 2006 and even earned a spot on the Pro Bowl roster in 2000.

Getting to the Pro Bowl was the highlight of Player’s career, but he can also be proud of his longevity.

As much work as Player put into making himself into an NFL player, he had to do just as much if he wanted to stay there.

“There’s no secret; you’ve just got to go out and perform every week,” he said. “Going out and doing your job so they don’t worry about you.

“I never even took a practice off. They’re always looking for the next guy, the younger guy.”

Now that his playing days are officially behind him, Player said he’s adjusted to being an ex-athlete, but he does try to fuel that competitive hunger on the golf course when he gets the chance.

As for football, Player doesn’t watch much of it but hasn’t ruled out some coaching in the future.

And he hasn’t found his NFL career helping him much in the business world — other than the lessons he learned in tenacity.

“I don’t think many people around know that I’m from around here,” he said. “I’ve never talked to one customer about football.”